Hellgate London - Returns

Hellgate: London was launched by Flagship Studios in 2007, but failed to make a mark and the game’s servers were closed down indefinitely in Europe and NA. Namco Bandai, who obtained the rights to the game after Flagship’s demise, stated at the time that there were no plans to re-open the game in the west, although HanbitSoft would be continuing the game in Korea.
Since that time, HanbitSoft has rebuilt and expanded the existing game, and the next instalment, Hellgate: Resurrection, was announced last month.
It now looks like players in the west will be getting back in on the Hellgate action later this year, following the announcement this morning. The company plans to re-launch the game in China, Taiwan, South East Asia, followed by Europe, NA and Japan.

I really enjoyed the game, even with its atrocious launch. I really feel for those guys, because while they obviously didn't understand PR and how to deal with the modern MMO market, they obviously knew about gameplay. It's the single most visceral experience I've had playing an action RPG. If only they didn't ignore the presentation of the story, because it was sort of interesting in some ways. Not that I'd ever play an action RPG purely for the story, but they took it too far in terms of not working on it.

I still have a big ol' collector's edition box sitting there … someday when I have time I'll reinstall … like you say, not as bad as the backlash would indicate, but a nice case study of how to destroy a company with bad decisions.

Originally Posted by Maylander
While such comments are certainly amusing, I don't think you'll find many RPG fans (even oldschool ones like the majority of the posters here at the Watch) that feels DA did not deliver.

Can't think of any promises made by the developers that was not actually delivered in the game. Except the DLC "The Return to Ostagar", of course.

But didn't it have too many "R"s in the names of persons and locations?

Originally Posted by Maylander
While such comments are certainly amusing, I don't think you'll find many RPG fans (even oldschool ones like the majority of the posters here at the Watch) that feels DA did not deliver.

Can't think of any promises made by the developers that was not actually delivered in the game. Except the DLC "The Return to Ostagar", of course.

Actually if you look on most forums (especially the news site forums) on most website, you'll find people who are dissatisfied with DA:O. I for on can say that DA:O didn't really do anything for me. fun game yes, GOTY material, not really.

I personally disagree with you, but you'd put it down as one of the most overhyped ever, even more so than Hellgate? Because that's the original context.

In terms of your post, sure, some people are disappointed - as with with virtually any game - but I'm pretty sure they are a smaller group than those that love it. If it doesn't win GotY here, it will come close. It's in the quarter final voting at Qt3 and so on and so on.

I didn't expect much from DA:O, so I was actually very pleasantly suprised.

In the end, it was a great CRPG that I consider one of the best in years. Unfortunately, it didn't quite hold up throughout - because I found the character mechanics underwhelming, and I was especially disappointed in how little incentive I found to replay the thing.

But that's because I enjoy the character building aspect more than the idea of replaying the same story from slightly different angles.

Overall, though, it remains a fantastic CRPG and certainly Bioware's best since KotOR.

Since the story was a major problem with Hellgate: London I wonder how Hanbitsoft will do. Korean and Japanese developers usually focus more on the story in their games so maybe they could make that aspect better.